Monday, September 19, 2016

The Trailblazer

Written by Vaishnavi Pallapothu and Sneha Sridhar Geeta Madhavan is the first woman in India to receive a Ph.
D in Law on International Terrorism. In 1997, she crossed off an important
milestone of her life when she was awarded the 'Doctoral Scholarship for
Advanced Research in International Terrorism' by the The Hague Academy of
International Law at the Hague, Netherlands. She was the only person from Asia
to be awarded in that year! In addition to being an avid blogger, Ms Madhavan
is also a teacher. She teaches at University of madras and Dr. Ambedkar Law
University as a guest lecturer. Her specialization lies in International
maritime law and International law and Nuclear Energy. Ms Madhavan is also
noted for publishing numerous articles, papers and even published books on
international issues such as terrorism, maritime laws, human rights, refugees.
Upon invitation from the US government, Ms Madhavan was invited to take part in
an 'International Group Project on International Security Issues'. She has also
attended the prestigious and well-known Salzburg Seminar and Wilton Park
Conference at Brighton, UK. To top it all off, she is also a practicing
advocate at the Madras High Court and is a partner of the legal firm, Madhavan
& Associates. She is a founding member of the Chennai based, Centre for
Security Analysis.

On 27th April, we had the
privilege to interview Dr Geeta Madhavan at her quiet household in Besant
Nagar. When we first learnt about her, we must admit that we were completely
clueless about her and her achievements. After reading up about her biography,
we went to the interview with a lot of curiosity.

If there was one word to describe
our rendezvous with Ms Madhavan, it would have to be eye-opening. She provided
such insightful answers to our questions. She was patient and thoughtful and
she answered our questions with enthusiasm. After burning through the initial
apprehension and hesitation, we were delighted to be able to speak with her
freely even after the interview. She spoke to us about her hobbies and
passions. She also gave us advice, which as students, I think we will go home
and take to heart.

Excerpts from the interview:

Law
on international terrorism seems like a very specific and unique topic to do a
Ph.D on. What inspired or motivated you to pursue a thesis like this?

When I was doing my Masters in International
Law, I did my dissertation on International Drug Trafficking and Control and
while I was working on that subject, I discovered that there was some kind of a
nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism. Terrorist groups were using drug
trafficking to generate money, so they could buy arms, recruit people and so
on. After that, I finished my Masters on Law and subsequently thereafter I got
married and took a six year sabbatical from my work. Only when my son went into
regular school, did I decide to register for the Ph.D. But even before that, my
interest only developed towards terrorism, because during this period the
erstwhile prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was blown up by an attack by the LTTE in
Sriperumbudur. So in that sense, I realized that terrorism had already come to
India. Before that, we had what we call domestic terrorism. This means the
people resorting to terror were citizens of India, whether they liked to be
called that or not. The problem was internal. But this was the first time a
terrorist group from another country committed an act of terror on our soil.
That was when I realized the area had expanded, that it was no more going to be
problems of terrorism within one country.

Coming
from India and especially back then, when career choice was pretty binary with either
engineering or medicine, what was your family's reaction for choosing this
field?

I was
one of those people who was very lucky to have found somebody who has always
been extremely supportive of me. My husband has done so much to stand by me and
he has always been there for me. My son has also been incredibly supportive. When I got into the thick of my Ph.D, my son said
he was proud of me and adjusted to all the times when I could give him all my
attention. He and I would actually sit together and study: I would do my work
and he would be doing his work. My mother, of course, asked me 'how long are
going to keep studying?'

Who
is your biggest inspiration? Is there somebody particular who made you develop
an interest in this field?

There is never one single person
who affects you. Like, my father, he was very ambitious for me. I'm an only
child and he always gave me the freedom of thought. In my time freedom didn't
mean physical freedom, it meant intellectual freedom. My father was very
supportive throughout my schooling and college. He gave me very tough
timetables to live by and I had to follow it. Even my summer vacation had a
timetable. So discipline, ambition and drive came from my father. The idea of
deadlines, punctuality and keeping myself focused came from a lot of people
around me. And then of course patience and perseverance, I think, comes from my
husband. I don't think a single person ever acts as an inspiration; a lot of
people contribute to it.

How
was your experience at The Hague Academy of International Law?

The Hague Academy is King
Solomon's mine for anybody doing International Law; it's a pool of gems. When I
went there in 1997, I was very fortunate because I was the only one from Asia;
I was selected as one of the three as you know. The campus town was very
beautiful. I used to be at the library at 10:00 am and I used to work till 5:00
pm, that's when they closed the library. Then from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm, I used
to go to the beach, because the sun sets at 10 o'clock in summer. I would just
chill with all my friends and hit the pub at night. It was one wild
roller-coaster ride, in the sense that it was fun, it was intensive work and
balancing both was really amazing. Now, coming back to the Hague Academy, the
library was just fantastic. The environment is so research friendly, it
encourages you to read and learn more. If I ever had to run a library, that's
how I would do it. The systematic borrowing is amazing there and even if we
can't do it in public libraries, I wish at least school libraries would try to
use that system. The campus is also really beautiful, it's got trees, flowers,
ponds, black and white swans. When you enter, you are so calm and happy and it
makes you work very hard.

You have a PHD and
you also write several articles, papers and reviews for various platforms. Do
you think there is a significant difference in terms of content and tone while
writing each of these or is your approach the same for all of them?

Yeah,
of course. When I write for international legal journals, it is obviously much
more technical with more legal terms and conversation. When I write for
newspapers, I have a hard time trying to simplify it and yet somebody recently
told me “I read your article, I read it again and I couldn’t understand it”.
That surprised me because I thought I had really simplified it. That was an eye-opener and next time, I will
try to make it even simpler. You will probably find some of my journal and
newspaper articles on by blog and they are very heavy, tedious and didactic but
you can also find some simpler ones like what is piracy and what are the myths
about terrorism that I think even school children can understand.

What do you think
is the main reason for the existence of terrorism?

Terrorism
has been a part of human history for a very long time. The people who commit
acts of terror have been doing so for a long time and for various reasons.
Religious, ethnic and political reasons for example. But international
terrorism has changed over time and what started as an opposition against
regime has moved onto a lot more intensive, virulent and frightening form of
terrorism. Today, civilian casualties are much more higher than it used to be
before. Terrorists want larger and more theatrical actions thus mostly target
innocent civilians who have no direct connection to the regime. They find it
much easier to hit the softer targets since the leaders are usually heavily
protected. To gain attention, they target the public spaces like subways, train
stations and markets. That is why you find that even the USA only refers to the
world trade centre incident and not the Pentagon one. They won’t mention it
because the Pentagon is not considered a civilian target.

What do you think
the future of terrorism looks like? How relevant is it in today’s world?

It
will be there. You can only counter it and you cannot eradicate it. The cycle
of terrorism starts with recruitment, it grows, it gets flushed with funds
because of support, it becomes more and more ruthless to that point it thinks
it is invincible, it takes on the state or country and ends up being
annihilated. Every group somewhat goes through a similar cycle and you find
that when one group is tamed, another one is usually rising someplace else.

Why do you think
research on terrorism is important for the future of our world?

I
consider my research to be important because it focuses on how countries under
the international law can tackle terrorism and how to come together to tackle
it. Even if it takes a long time, the countries should take steps and start
working towards it. Unfortunately, many countries have their own selfish
political interests and that is why we are where we are today. There is a
mutual consensus for piracy: pirates are considered enemies of all mankind so
any country can act against a pirate. Until we (all countries) agree that
terrorists are enemies of all mankind, and not sponsor or fund or train them or
even give them logistic support, we cannot eradicate it.